Boy Offers Dollar To Homeless Man, Gets Awesome Reward
Our Cup o’ Joy story is about Kelvin Ellis meeting a “homeless man” in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The 9-year-old is doing what he thought was right for someone who he thought was homeless. Little did he know, this would end up giving him the best day of his life. This all went down at a coffee shop close to where Kelvin lives.
“Homeless Man” Turns Out To Not Be Homeless
The man that 9-year-old went up to wasn’t homeless at all, in fact, he was just praying in the corner of the outside area of a coffee shop. His name is Matt Musbice. He had left his apartment building after a false fire alarm had went off, hence his unkempt state.
“If you’re homeless, here’s a dollar… I always wanted to help a homeless person and I finally had the opportunity.”
Kevin Ellis, in an interview with Steve Hartman of CBS News
Ellis comes up to Musbice while he was praying in the corner and gave him the last dollar he had, something he got from his father for good grades. Then, a friendship and karma kicked in.
“Homeless Man” Rewards Kid For Kindness
Musbice, according to GoodNewsNetwork, has created several outdoor brands that ultimately have sold in deals totalling over $100 million. So he is very much not homeless but quite the opposite.
He took the young boy into the coffee shop and got him snack but then the bigger surprise came. He gave Ellis a 40-second shopping spree in the sporting goods store, BuckFeather, which he currently runs.
“Joy, because I helped someone,” Ellis said. “Give something away, and you feel like you’ve got a lot of things from it.”
CBS News
He Was Praying
I think it is so worth noting that when all of this happened, Musbice was just trying to find a place to pray. Then this young man reached out to do something amazing.
Obviously, this business owner didn’t need a dollar, but he made a friend in the process. Somebody that he can bless in that moment and moving forward. Whether you believe in a higher power like I do, or you don’t, you have to admit that there is something beautiful going on here.
New Puppy For Jeff & Emily, 5 Adorable Photos
They’ve done it, Jeff and Emily Kurkjian adopted a new puppy! As if we thought that having an eight month old baby wasn’t too much, we decided to throw this up on top of it. Cause, why not? Might as well let them grow up together.
New Puppy For The Kurkjians
If you remember, we adopted an eight year old dog, Pirate, back in 2019. Absolutely fell in love with him. I mean, who wouldn’t? However, we knew the inevitable when it comes to adopting an older dog. We said goodbye to Pirate in November of 2023.
I was hosting an adoption event for our listeners at the radio station I worked for in Las Vegas. That’s when I met this sweet boy, Pirate. After encouraging people to come adopt him, I just knew he had to be mine.
I wrote all about his life and what a great doggo he was, you can read all of that here.
National Adopt A Shelter Pet Day
Amazingly today, April 30th, 2024, also happens to be National Adopt A Shelter Pet Day. And in celebration of that, we adopted a shelter pet. #AdoptAShelterPet is trending on social media right now. I posted about our new boy!
Here he is. Our new puppy Ranger just makes us so happy!
Wanted to give a big shoutout and thank you to Home At Last Dog Rescue, you were amazing in this entire process.
“We are a group of dog-loving volunteers whose goal is to save the lives of homeless dogs suffering in high-kill shelters and puppy mills, as well as dogs in other unfortunate circumstances.”
Home At Last Dog Rescue
The hope is that days like today will raise awareness for dogs that are waiting (and needing) to be adopted. It helps clear out the shelters for the inevitable refilling of them during the summer months.
I once had a friend of mine, who volunteered at an Ohio based animal shelter, that the weeks following the Fourth of July are their busiest because of the amount of animals that are scared of fireworks that either end up running away or being displaced.
The Big New Puppy Announcement
My dad, ESPN’s Tim Kurkjian, and I started a podcast called “Is This A Great Game, Or What?” all about a father-son duo talking baseball. It’s new every single Tuesday wherever you get your podcasts. Skip ahead to the 7:40 mark to hear all about Ranger, our new pup!
We are also on YouTube, you can see my dad’s reaction talking about the addition to our family. He’s also a very big dog lover so it doesn’t surprise me that his reaction was this great.
What Kind Of New Puppy?
These three puppies were taken out a really rough situation, a puppy mill. They are Bernedoodles, which is a mix between a Bernese Mountain Dog and a Poodle. We aren’t sure at this point if he will be a Mini Bernedoodle or a full size Bernedoodle, I guess we will find out!
Why The Name Ranger?
Emily’s favorite Phillies player is without a doubt Ranger Suarez. He has had a very hot start to the 2024 season as well. And, as my dad pointed out, the two dogs we have had are both named after baseball teams. First we had Pirate (Pittsburgh Pirates), and now we have Ranger (Texas Rangers).
We are a baseball family. Let’s meet our sweet boy, Ranger!
